Page 68 of Come Back to Me

“Yeah, it does. Take Noah and I for example. When I saw him this summer, it had been five years since I last saw him. What you said is how I felt about seeing him again. It’s like no time has passed, but it did.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” she says.

“Was it weird seeing Noah after all those years?”

“Yes and no. Time is such a weird concept with things like this. I know our situations are totally different, but I feel like out of the people I’ve talked to about this, you’d understand it the most. Noah and I changed as individuals. I can see you’ve changed from the last time we talked. Grayson has changed, too.”

I nod, smiling. “I don’t think we change. We grow up. Life loves to throw so many things at us until it thinks we can’t handle anything anymore, but we rise above the occasion andbecome stronger because of those shitty experiences. Those experiences lead us to the good ones that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”

Wow, who am I?

Dani’s face is blank, attempting to process what I explained to her. Awkward silence takes over the car for the rest of the drive home.

After a ten minute drive, we pull into a parking space diagonally in front of my apartment building at Hightower.

“You sounded a lot like Noah back there,” Dani says as she unbuckles her seatbelt. “He loves to give out words of wisdom about life.”

I chuckle, releasing myself from the seatbelt. “Why does that not surprise me?”

“Alright, that’s enough about me. Tell me what happened with Grayson.”

“We might be here for a while.”

She shrugs her shoulders. “Lay it all on me.”

“After you left, we decided to go back to the guys’ apartment to talk about things. We updated each other on where we are in our lives now. I forgot how easy it is to talk to him. It made me realize how much I missed it and how much I missed him. It was strange to go back to the past and talk about when we were together.” I clear my throat. “He told me he doesn’t want me to leave him again.”

Dani’s eyes grow wide. “Wow, that’s a lot of information to digest. What did you tell him?”

“I told him we should be just friends.”

“How did he take that?”

“He took it pretty well. I think we’re on the same page as far as rushing back into a relationship goes. We’re not ready for it at all.”

“Can I be honest with you?”

I nod. “Sure.”

“I completely understand why you’re not ready to jump back into a relationship with him and vice versa. You both have wounds that aren’t fully healed yet. See where this friendship with him goes, and reevaluate it a few months from now. I’m sorry if I’m overstepping or making assumptions, but it’s the truth.”

“I’m so confused,” I say.

“What are you confused about?”

“Everything.”

She nods slowly, pursing her lips out. “Love is confusing as hell. One minute you feel like you’re living in a romance novel, and the next, you realize this is real life. Sometimes the shit that happens in romance books doesn’t happen in real life.”

“It happened to you though. And in a way, it happened to me, too.”

“I guess the universe thinks we’re special. Sometimes I think I don’t deserve it.”

“Don’t deserve what?” I turn my body sideways, sitting criss-cross applesauce with my eyes on Dani’s face.

“Having someone who loves me unconditionally and enjoys taking care of me.” She breathes out through her nose. “I’ve been an only child all my life, which has made me painfully independent. I got so used to taking care of everybody else and not allowing anybody to take care of me.” She catches her breath. “Violet, you’ve known Grayson since you were kids. You became friends. And somewhere along the way, it became something much more. What happened between you two is what so many people dream of having. It’s safe to say what you and Grayson had is nothing short of a romance-book-worthy kind of love.”